Q: My goal is to
build my home business into a brand name. How do I do stand out in
a crowded marketplace?

A: Build your brand
around a real person, like Lillian Vernon, founder and CEO of giant
gift and houseware products catalog company Lillian Vernon Corp.,
who started her company as a homebased business. It's
reassuring to know that Lillian Vernon believes there's more to
the art of branding than a jumbo advertising budget. Here are some
tips on how to create a brand through the power of personality.

It's one thing to create a symbol, like Betty Crocker, and
build it into a brand, and quite another to build a brand around a
person. The person needs to have the qualities that underlie what
you communicate as the company's strengths.

Communicate your brand's personality. You can convey
personality with unique products, clever presentation, a strong
guarantee and other qualities that represent promises you can keep.
Vernon communicates in each of her company's catalogs, "I
am my customer's personal shopper, even though I have a team of
buyers scouring the globe."

Build credibility-keep your promises. Gallup has
research showing that if customers don't have a firm foundation
of confidence and trust in a brand, customer loyalty erodes. Trust
in a brand also pays off because as a company moves into new
products and markets, the power of the personality helps improve
the chances of success. By relying on the key aspects of her
personality, Vernon was able to extend her credibility to the
children's market by introducing a catalog with children's
products. The same has held for the online marketplace.

Rely heavily on public relations. If you as a
personality are regarded as interesting and creative, opportunities
open up for magazine profiles and appearances on talk shows.

Don't lose sight of your original values. Promises
must be kept not just at first, but always. As your company grows,
it's easy to get sidetracked into ventures or products that
might not be worthy of the personality's claims to high quality
or value. For example, a new product line may not be of the same
quality, or the company may discontinue a highly valued money-back
guarantee.